In what will surely go down as being one of the most random album announcements of all time, Jay-Z has announced the title and release date of his twelfth studio album.

Due to arrive July 4th, ”Magna Carta Holy Grail” sees Jay-Z adopt a similar album release strategy to that deployed by Kanye West for his “Yeezus” album – an atypical one.

Announcing the news via a video in partnership with Samsung, Jay-Z gives fans access to the behind the scenes of the making of the new album which features producers Timbaland, Rick Rubin, Swizz Beatz and Pharrell.

Hailed as being “revolutionary”, the new album will be available for free on July 4th to Samsung Galaxy cell phone owners who are among the first million people to download the “Magna Carta” app on June 24th.

“Magna Carta Holy Grail” will then be available worldwide three days later (July 7th)

Check out the video announcement below.

so this album is platinum already due to Samsung purchasing a million copies

Samsung has purchased 1 million copies of Jay-Z’s coming album, entitled “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” slated for release July 4, and plans to give them to Samsung Galaxy smartphone users for free – 72 hours ahead of the release. The users are to receive the music through an app they’ll receive later this month.For Jay-Z, the deal is a precious advertising opportunity and gives him $5 million in sales before the album is even released. The agreement signals the increasing importance of corporate sponsors to the music industry, which has seen sales tank over the past decade

so will soundscan seriously count these sales? this is worse then artists including album sales in heir concert tickets.so in other words jayz got a 5 million dollar endoresment deal with samsung,instead of just giving him a check they bought 1 million albums at 5 bucks a pop and will get their money back giving free albums away to samsung customers,while jayz gets credit for selling a million albums before its even released.

This has more to do with Samsung's battle against Apple for the top spot, and less to do with Jigga than most realize. While Jigga hardly needs help selling records, it's all about brand indentity for Samsung. It hurts neither party and helps Samsung a whole bunch.

"Love is like peeing in your pants, everyone sees it but only you feel its warmth"

What does the word random (as in the first sentence of the article) mean anymore? Unexpected? Late? Surprisingly on the heels of Kanye's release (or actually not on the heels, since that doesn't drop until tomorrow)? Involving some unusual giveaway aspect? Vaguely different?

It doesn't seem to mean "by chance" or "without plan or decision." Sometimes people seem to mean "crazy"--but I don't really see that here.

What does the word random (as in the first sentence of the article) mean anymore? Unexpected? Late? Surprisingly on the heels of Kanye's release (or actually not on the heels, since that doesn't drop until tomorrow)? Involving some unusual giveaway aspect? Vaguely different?

It doesn't seem to mean "by chance" or "without plan or decision." Sometimes people seem to mean "crazy"--but I don't really see that here.

And hardly anything involving Jay-Z is literally random, is it?

It is a dumb title. I can't imagine that it makes any sense at all.

exactly what i was thinking

ps: i bet prince is stomping his feet and grinding his teeth somewhere going "5 million dollars"

Well regardless of the marketing he is ripping off, its basically what everyone is doing, create a BUZZ with a title that is bloated and stupid and HYPE, him and Beyonce are a perfect couple they do everything the same, HYPE overdose, no substance, Jay has not been interesting music wise in eons, and im guessing this will keep the eons going title alone

"We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F

Graycap23 said: Is that you Graycap or Dave Chapelle...I can't tell. I'm sure the rest of y'all RSVP'd so your probably in the crowd somewhere..hate hate hate hate!

Lol.......................I hear it now.

Song 1: cars

Song 2: haters

Song 3: stuff u can buy

Song 4: High life

Song 5: Merck Ya

Song 6: Owning assets

Song 7: Liquor and hoes

Song 8: Illuminati nonsense

Song 9: collabo

Song 10: collabo

Song 11: I know the President

Song 12: I know the 1st Lady 2

Don't forget the Bonus Cut: I married the hottest chick in the game...yadda yadda yadda. I literally cracked up when he mentioned in the commercial that the album is a duality on success, failure and how to remain yourself through it all. I thought, hasn't he been making the same record for how many years now?

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Anyway, musically (based on the snippets in the clip) it reminds me of The Black Album. I guess that shouldn't be surprising being that he's working with mostly the same producers.

Don't forget the Bonus Cut: I married the hottest chick in the game...yadda yadda yadda. I literally cracked up when he mentioned in the commercial that the album is a duality on success, failure and how to remain yourself through it all. I thought, hasn't he been making the same record for how many years now?

-

Anyway, musically (based on the snippets in the clip) it reminds me of The Black Album. I guess that shouldn't be surprising being that he's working with mostly the same producers.

Don't forget the Bonus Cut: I married the hottest chick in the game...yadda yadda yadda. I literally cracked up when he mentioned in the commercial that the album is a duality on success, failure and how to remain yourself through it all. I thought, hasn't he been making the same record for how many years now?

-

Anyway, musically (based on the snippets in the clip) it reminds me of The Black Album. I guess that shouldn't be surprising being that he's working with mostly the same producers.

Don't forget the Bonus Cut: I married the hottest chick in the game...yadda yadda yadda. I literally cracked up when he mentioned in the commercial that the album is a duality on success, failure and how to remain yourself through it all. I thought, hasn't he been making the same record for how many years now?

-

Anyway, musically (based on the snippets in the clip) it reminds me of The Black Album. I guess that shouldn't be surprising being that he's working with mostly the same producers.

I'm scared for this one honestly. Hov is my dude, but mainly the production on Blueprint 3 made it worthwhile. Most definitely not his lyrics. Same for Watch the Throne, him and Kanye both phoned it in.

so will soundscan seriously count these sales? this is worse then artists including album sales in heir concert tickets.so in other words jayz got a 5 million dollar endoresment deal with samsung,instead of just giving him a check they bought 1 million albums at 5 bucks a pop and will get their money back giving free albums away to samsung customers,while jayz gets credit for selling a million albums before its even released.

Billboard chart won't count Jay Z sales from Samsung album deal

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Billboard's weekly music chart will not include the 1 million copies of rapper Jay Z's upcoming album that were sold to electronics maker Samsung as part of a promotion, the U.S. trade magazine said on Friday.

Jay Z, 43, announced last weekend that his album "Magna Carta Holy Grail" could be downloaded for free on July 4 - three days before its public release - to the first 1 million users of Samsung smartphones who had downloaded a special app.

Bulk album sales that are give away for free are not counted in total sales and not eligible to be included on the music charts even if an artist and a record label are paid for them, according to Billboard's rules.

The magazine's editorial director, Bill Werde, said Billboard rejected Jay Z's request that the Samsung promotional sales be counted toward the Billboard 200 chart because "in the context of this promotion, nothing is actually for sale."

"The ever-visionary Jay Z pulled the nifty coup of getting paid as if he had a platinum album before one fan bought a single copy," Werde said.

The magazine in 2011 also instituted a minimum price of $3.49 for an album to be considered for its chart in the first four weeks after release, which came in response to retailers and record labels who were selling albums for less than $1 to inflate sales.

Werde said Jay Z should earn his 13th No. 1 album anyway, as "Magna Carta Holy Grail" is forecast to sell between 400,000 and 450,000 units in its first week.

But Werde said Billboard will discuss tweaking its album-counting policy because of the prevalence of branding deals in the industry and the changing nature of how music is consumed.

"Just because the Billboard 200 has been based purely on sales of an album for the entirety of the life of the chart doesn't mean it must always remain so," Werde said.

The magazine's Hot 100 songs chart has been changed in recent years to include digital downloads and online streaming figures as consumers turn away from traditional terrestrial radio and buying physical copies of songs.

"Magna Carta Holy Grail" will be released by Universal Music Group's Roc-A-Fella Records.